Beyond the direct effect of economic growth on child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa: does environmental degradation matter?

Using a sample of 45 Sub-Saharan African countries over the 2000-2019 period, this paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the health effect of economic growth. Specifically, it investigates the direct effect of economic growth on child mortality as well as the indirect effect through environmental degradation. Findings from panel-corrected standard errors, feasible generalized least squares, and Driscoll and Kraay standard errors show that economic growth has significantly decreased infant and under-five mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, results from the mediation analysis reveal that, beyond its direct effect, economic growth has an indirect effect on under-five mortality through greenhouse gas emissions. Implementing green growth policies should help minimize the indirect negative effect of economic growth on child mortality in Sub-Saharan African countries.